WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vowed on Monday to continue supporting his nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, although she offered to opt out amid concerns over her alleged role in torturing prisoners and destroying waterboarding tapes.

Haspel, who was nominated in March, will be the first woman to lead the CIA if confirmed. She is scheduled to appear before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday for her confirmation hearing despite indications that both Democrats and Republicans may oppose her nomination.

“My highly respected nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on terrorists,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

“Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror,” he wrote. “Win Gina!”

But The New York Times reported on Monday that Haspel too has doubts about her confirmation and on Friday she offered to withdraw her nomination.

The offer “sent administration officials scurrying” and a group of top aides, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, “rushed to CIA headquarters to prevent Haspel from dropping out”, NYT added.

Contingency plans

Although they succeeded in convincing Haspel to stay in the race, CNN reported that the Trump administration was also working on contingency plans in case the Senate panel refuses to confirm her.

Quoting five different sources, CNN reported that Susan Gordon, the deputy director of national intelligence, could be asked to replace Haspel if the Trump administration felt that the Senate would reject its nominee.

US National Security officials told US media outlets that they still believe Haspel can survive the confirmation hearing but they were making contingency plans to have alternatives if she does not.

Two additional sources told CNN that they also have a general contingency plan to fill in the CIA slot, which became available after the agency’s former chief, Mike Pompeo, was made the new secretary of state late last month.

Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson was forced to quit on March 31 following policy differences with President Trump.

Details of the general contingency plan were not revealed.

Two congressional staffers told CNN that Haspel could stay on as acting director of the CIA if she does not get the Senate votes.

Both CNN and NYT reported that Haspel, who has been with the CIA for 33 years, is controversial for several reasons. She oversaw a CIA overseas facility in Thailand in 2002 where harsh techniques were used for interrogating suspected terrorists. She was, however, not at the site when Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times.

Haspel was also chief of staff to the director of the National Clandestine Service, Jose Rodriguez, in 2005 when the CIA tapes of interrogations were destroyed.

“Haspel was passed over for a promotion during the Obama administration, as the CIA sought to distance itself from the interrogation programme,” NYT added.

Congressional experts told various media outlets that Haspel’s confirmation will depend on two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia, and two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Senator Paul switched at the last minute this month and voted for Pompeo despite initial reservations expressed in the hearing. It’s unclear whether he will do the same for Haspel.

AFP adds: Haspel, 61, has by most accounts been an exemplary operative during 33 years in the CIA’s shadowy clandestine service. The national security community, including multiple former CIA chiefs, have strongly endorsed her.

In an aggressive campaign in Haspel’s support, the CIA has selectively declassified details of her career.

She twice served as London-based chief of European operations; she learned both Russian and Turkish on the job; she led an operation to nab two of the bombers of US embassies in Africa in 1998; and she once helped Mother Teresa in efforts to get food for needy people — though just where that took place also remains classified.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2018